Paula Vidad tops Trish Johnson for Senior Open title

Thursday

Jul 24, 2014 at 5:21 PMJul 24, 2014 at 5:21 PM

By Chris LongRockford Register Star

Tish Johnson raised her arms in mock celebration.

“Another bridesmaid; I’m getting good at this,” she said.

For the second consecutive year at the Women’s Senior U.S. Open stepladder finals, the “bride” was Paula Vidad. She bowled her way to $3,000 by defeating Johnson 234-210 in the final round of the stepladder format championship. It was her third victory on the senior tour in four years.

After the match, Vidad, said her main focus was controlling her velocity and that she didn’t have to adjust her starting position after her warm-up frames. She had a good idea how much “ball action” she would have on the lanes.

At a competitive level, bowlers must determine how much their ball will curve back from the right (for a right-handed bowler). It’s similar to a golfer reading the slope of a putting green with two major exceptions. Primarily, bowlers cannot see how much a ball will move without rolling a ball down the lane.

Over the course of multiple games, how much the ball moves or reacts changes with the changing of the oil patterns.

It’s people such as Doug Dukes who have the responsibility to make sure that the differences between the lanes are indistinguishable to the human eye. Dukes, who coached Megan Buja during her national championship run with Maryland-Eastern Shore, now travels by van to and from BPAA tournaments across the country. Without fail, he brings with him two 375-pound lane machines or “oilers.”

“There’s not a lot of room for error. We take this process very, very seriously,” he said. “These women are bowling for a lot of money.”

Vidad said she’ll spend her $3,000 in prize money on a nice dinner and on travel expenses on her next leg of the tour.